Typically, large, multinational corporations have a distributed system containing many computers spread across a wide geographical area that are networked together. This type of environment makes it difficult and costly to manage the computers in terms of providing software installation, support and maintenance. That is, an administrator of the distributed system has to visit each computer in order to manage the computers. Thus, a significant cost of managing the computers in this type of environment stems from software installation, support, and maintenance. In fact, the initial purchase price of software may be only a small portion of the total cost associated with managing the computers.
The distributed systems of large corporations usually comprise computers that have dissimilar hardware and software components. The lack of uniformity in components is the product of different organizations within the corporation having different needs for their computers. For instance, one organization may consist primarily of clerical workers, who utilize various programs such as word processing programs or spreadsheet programs, that do not require significant processing power, whereas another organization in the corporation that performs engineering research utilize more computationally intensive programs that require significantly more processing power. Therefore, a large corporation usually has computers with different types of processors.
With respect to different software components, the distributed systems of large corporations usually contain groups of computers that are interconnected via a local area network (LAN). Each group of computers typically represents an organization within the corporation. Each group of computers contains one or more server computers that runs a network operating system. A "network operating system" provides network services to other computers ("client computers") on the LAN, such as remote file access as well as remote printing capabilities. In many instances, different groups may have servers running different network operating systems.
The client computers within a group of computers are typically used by end users. End users often have preferences regarding what operating system runs on their computer Therefore, in a distributed system of a large corporation having many end users, there are usually a number of computers with different operating systems.
Just as end users have a preference for a particular operating system, end users typically have a preference for a natural language in which communications between the end user and the computer are to take place. In a distributed system of a large, multinational corporation, it is common to have computers that employ different natural languages for communications with end users.
Systems have been developed that, upon user initiation, install software from a master computer to a slave computer, where both the master and the slave are homogeneous with respect to each other in that they have similar hardware and software components. However, these systems typically do not operate within a distributed system of computers that have dissimilar hardware and software components, such as is commonly found with large corporations. Therefore, although systems have been developed to facilitate the installation of software on homogenous computers, these systems do not suit the needs of a large corporation. Thus, large corporations and other organizations having a distributed system of heterogeneous computers are in need of a mechanism to facilitate the installation of software within their distributed system.